Schools: Putting gulf crisis to practical use in classrooms

DATE                  1/12/91
NEWSPAPER             THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
SECTION               METRO
EDITION               EVENING
PAGE                  B01
STORY LENGTH          14 INCHES
HEADLINE              Schools: Putting gulf crisis to practical use in 
                         classrooms
BYLINE/CREDIT         Dan Froomkin:The Orange County Register
SUBJECT TERMS         SCHOOLS:OC:EDUCATION:MIDEAST:WAR
 
     When Barb Batson's students at Clinton Elementary School ask her
  if the United States is going to war, she answers in a way that she
  hopes will teach them a valuable lesson.
     The nation, she says, is trying to solve the Persian Gulf crisis
  with words rather than weapons.
     "It's just like we tell kids at school: The best way to solve a
  problem is by discussing it," said Batson, principal of the Garden
  Grove school.
     But if President Bush decides to send troops into Kuwait, Batson
  said, she will have to switch to a new lesson.
     "I guess I'll tell them that I expect them to stand up for
  themselves," she said.
     As the threat of war nears, Orange County classrooms are alive
  with discussion about the Persian Gulf crisis -- sparked by
  everything from the innocent questions of small children to a high
  school history class finding parallels between Hitler's annexation of
  Poland and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's annexation of Kuwait.
     Elementary-school teachers say they are finding it a challenge to
  explain the Persian Gulf crisis in a way that is simple, apolitical
  and not frightening.
     "Many of us don't understand what's going on over there," Batson
  said. "So how do you explain it to an 8-year-old?"
     Dozens of elementary schools have found it easier to spare their
  students the complex issues and hold rallies, food drives and
  letter-writing campaigns in support of US troops in Saudi Arabia.
     But in high school classrooms, many teachers are delving into the
  gulf crisis with gusto, seeing a golden opportunity to simultaneously
  teach current events and make their normal classroom subjects more
  exciting and lively.
     Sunny Hills High School teacher Patrick Lampman frequently begins
  his social-science classes with video clips about the crisis from the
  "MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour." And it generally leads to extensive
  classroom discussion.
     In his US history class, Lampman asked his class to discuss, in
  light of the Civil War and the gulf crisis, the statement that "wars
  create more problems than those the wars sought to resolve."
     Lampman's approach, his students said, makes class a lot more
  exciting and has helped them understand just how complicated the gulf
  crisis is.
     "If you're just reading textbooks, you don't get all the insight,"
  said Atsushi Kawamoto, 15. His greatest insight into the gulf crisis:
  "There's no really simple solution to anything."
     Two doors down, history teacher Bob Linn read students a letter
  from a Union soldier in the Civil War complaining that anti-war
  protests in New York were hurting troop morale. Linn suggested that
  Congress members not rallying around President Bush could be doing
  the same thing.
     Like many teachers, Linn said tying history to current events
  makes the subjects he is teaching come alive.
     "History is like a hammer to a carpenter," Linn said. It has no
  value when it is idle. "What's important is what you can do with it."
     Discussion of the gulf crisis also goes on outside history
  classes, however. English teachers across the county say the subject
  is particularly effective to get students to write interesting
  essays.
     A Garden Grove High School English class just finished a monthlong
  study of the anti-war novel "All Quiet on the Western Front," set in
  the trenches of World War I.
     Teacher Jackie Dvorman drew parallels to current events, which her
  students said deepened their understanding of both the book and the
  war that might lay ahead.
     Clint Walker, 17, said the book made him realize that "we're going
  to fight a bunch of people who we don't know, who we never met."
     Economics classes have discussed the effect the war would have on
  oil prices and the stock market. Many teachers have found students
  eager to learn the rules of a military draft.
     Teachers say even those students who generally don't care about
  world events are interested in the crisis -- sometimes for personal
  reasons. They worry about getting drafted. They don't want gas prices
  to go up. They are afraid for their friends or family members on
  active duty.